Flytipping on Sutton Green recycling site – a solution is found!

My ward colleague Cllr Ruth Dombey has been taking a lead on dealing with the flytipping issue on the recycling site at Sutton Green, next to the old toilet block.

The issue came up at the Sutton Local Committee this Tuesday (see link) with the question thrown open about what to do. The three options were:

Keep the recycling site as it is but do more monitoring;

Remove the mixed dry recycling bins but leave the other bins for materials that cannot be recycled at home (eg. clothes, books);

Remove the recycling site altogether.

After some discussion we decided on a different option! We will remove the mixed dry recycling bins from Sutton Green – as per option 2 – but will relocate those bins to another site nearby (exact position to be determined).

Everyone agreed that the flytiping is an absolute disgrace, and most of the time the recycling centre looks a complete mess.

The Council has in fact been trying to catch the culprits with hidden cameras, and recently prosecuted a man for attempting to dump two televisions (see link).

It has generally proven hard to catch flytippers. It is strongly suspected that some of the culprits are local businesses who are dumping material rather than pay for it to be disposed of.

I spoke out strongly against options 2 and 3 on grounds that the removal of any recycling facilities would send the wrong signals about the Council’s commitment to recycling.

I believe my intervention helped focus attention on a solution that would not see any recycling bins disappear, and it was then decided that the mixed dry recycling would be moved to another location nearby.

Some grassing of the site will make it more visually attractive and the new design will hopefully deter flytippers.

This solution will hopefully deal with the flytipping issue and keep our recycling, which I am delighted about!